History
The gun was a firm favourite among shooters in the 1970s and 1980s, the piston, chamber and barrel are similar to the BSA Meteor Air Rifle but the internal dimensions are different and parts are not interchangeable. The trigger is adjustable for pressure, but cannot be considered to be a target trigger. The pistol has an automatic safety catch which is disengaged by operation of a short lever lying next to the shooter's thumb position. Many of the external parts, such as front and rear sights, are identical to those fitted to the contemporary BSA Meteor and AirSporter rifles. Early sights were die-cast alloy, later ones plastic. The gun can prove to be a little heavy to shoot for any period of time and the moulded plastic grip was designed for right hand shooters.
The Scorpion was one of the highest powered pistols of its day and at approximately 5.5 ft•lbf (7.5 J) of energy for both calibers it was close to the UK legal power limit for an air pistol, It is still comparable to modern weapons such as the Weihrauch HW45.
Priced at about £20 when first launched in 1973, it was BSA's first air pistol. The standard kit included a bottle of oil, a small tube of pellets, a pressed steel target holder with targets, and a barrel extension to provide extra leverage when cocking. Original packaging was in a polystyrene tray with a printed cardboard outer sleeve. In 2009 a .22 Mk2 Scorpion pistol in good order, in its original packaging and accessories, sold for £170 in the UK.
Good examples of this pistol are still available, however many have been poorly maintained and although most parts are still available from specialist suppliers, some are in short supply and restoration is neither straightforward nor cheap.
A full stocked "carbine" version of the gun, the The Buccaneer was produced from 1977, neither the Scorpion or Buccaneer remain in production.
In the James Bond film 'Octopussy', Octopussy (Maud Adams) and her team use BSA Scorpion pistols loaded with tranquilizers to fight off Kamal's men.
Read more about this topic: BSA Scorpion Air Pistol
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)